The Song Of Fire
by rouge fairy
Summary: A strange girl from the Yamani Islands escapes after being accused of a murder she did not commit, only to fall in to the strangest company in a new land. When a plot is discovered that could throw thier countries into war, she is thrust into a world were
1. Intro

**Authors Note**

**Disclaimer** – I do not, in any way, shape, or form claim to be Tamora Pierce. Nor am I selling this story for monetary means. I do not own the Tortall series, nor am I trying to gather credit for writing them. This applies to all chapters.

**Characters** – Keladry, Neal, and everyone else at the northern border, as well as a few of my own creation.

**Pairing** – Kel/Dom, Neal/Yuki, and others.

**Status** – In-Progress

**Information** – I started writing this back in Grade Seven. I originally posted it quite some time ago and am only now, due to my getting high-speed, am updating and revising it

**Authors** – Myself, with some help from fantasizingfluff.

**Beta** – Kennidia

**Summary** – A young Yamini thief flees to Tortall when she is accused of murdering a noble. Set right after Lady Knight.

**Note** – The 'I' in Sariana is meant to have two dots. Would anyone happen to know how to do that on Word?


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Capture**

Sariana Yallimi dove under the worn dock. She surfaced, and proceeded to swim beneath the worn boards to the other side. The fragile, yet strong willed Yamani girl, obviously poor, was having a hard time fleeing her persistent and faceless pursuers. The murky sea lapped by Sari in small waves. Her hands, trembling with fatigue, slowly gripped the edge of the dock. She pulled herself up, and ran through the narrow alleyways. Sari's breath was now coming in ragged gasps. Just ahead of her she could see the market place, where she could lose even the most malevolent and determined pursuer. _Almost there… just a bit farther…_ she thought. With a sinking heart, she felt strong fingers encircle her ankle, and pull her down. Flipping upright, she saw the fist falling towards her head. Her last conscious thought, before she sank into inky blackness, was this time, well, what had she stolen?

Keladry of Mindelan slowed Hoshi to a walk, bringing her up beside Neal of Queenscove. Neal was muttering under his breath. Something about them not going fast enough, Kel thought, as she ducked her head to hide a smile. Neal had been complaining about their speed since they started yesterday. Now he was complaining that they could get there tonight if…

"If we ride full out, possibly killing our horses. Yuki can wait and so can you." Neal glared at Kel, silently fuming, and grasped for an adequate comeback. Kel grinned as he snorted, and watched in silent mirth as he urged his unwilling horse into a trot. With at least several yards of distance between himself and his battle-ready friend, he called out,

"And what about your _precious_ cousin of mine?" Kel glared when Neal's contemptuous comment drifted back to her. Seeing the death stare he was receiving, the young man spurred his horse into a full gallop, his friend not far behind.

Sari awoke to a pounding headache, and something small poking into her ribs. Sitting up as best as she could, Sari quickly took stock of her surroundings. She was kneeling in a small cage, suspended five feet above the ground, which was firmly bolted to the ceiling and held up by a thick chain. Sari moved cautiously from side to side, trying to make the cage fall. It didn't even budge. _Mages work!_ She thought with bitterness. Tacked to the dirty wooden wall across from her was a piece of plain, yellowed parchment. Frowning, she leaned over to read it.

**_WANTED – the crime of MURDER_**

_**SARIANA YALLIMI**_

**_Will be awarded a total of 1500 Yemi for Capture_**

**_To be executed 5 days after capture_**

**_By order of his most Imperial Majesty, Emperor Harisian_**

With a thud, Sari fell back, not even noticing when her head hit a cold, metal bar. _How long had she been in this place? How long did she have left? How could she escape?_ The thought were whirling in her head faster then the Mitick River could flow. Then a bucket, which had been tipping precariously since the cage had begun to swing, tipped over and spewed its foul contents on the floor. Some thing inside her snapped and she leaped back up screaming.

"_Murder! Murder?_ I have never killed anything in my life, not even a fly, and certainly not a human!" Pausing for breath, she heard the sound of crazed laughter, reverberating from behind her. Sari whirled around, eyes widening in shock…


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Escape**

_Sari whirled around, eyes widening in shock…_

Behind her, in a cage almost identical to her own, a man sat, laughing in a voice roughened by time and fear. Horse from un-use, his voice rang through the heavy air of the room, a painful reminder of her predicament.

"Thank ye kindly lass," he said, "None of us have had such a source of entertainment for a long time." He laughed again; his gravely voice setting Sari's teeth on edge. Careful not to touch the contents of the spilled bucket, Sari leaned to the side to catch a glimpse of what lay behind the caged man before her. To her horror she saw that she was but one of many cages, all similarly hung, stretching out in a long line before her. Sari gasped in horror.

"Death row." She whispered. The man laughed as a woman behind him began to scream, rocking her cage from side to side, insanity lending a gleam to her blackened eyes.

"If your last on the list, chances are, you'll go mad before your execute." The man whispered to her, again laughing at the look of disgust and horror that swept across Sari's face. With a shudder she turned from the man, searching for a lock on her cage only to find, to her confusion, that there was none…


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Escape**

_With a shudder she turned from the man, searching for a lock on her cage only to find, to her confusion, that there was none…_

"No use looking for a laugh lassie" The man's voice echoed over that of the screaming woman as Sari slowly turned back towards him. At her puzzled expression the man laughed and then went on to explain, "Their aint one. Its mage work." The man spat on the rushes that lined the bottom of his cage. With a grimace, Sari turned her back to him once more, settling herself on the cage floor. Suddenly she whipped back around, causing her cage to swing and groan. Ignoring the noise and the small flaked of rust that came to settle on her head she opened her mouth to speak.

"How long have I been in here?" She asked, her voiced panicked. For as she had settled on the floor of her cage, her eyes had once again been drawn to that stained piece of parchment and again she had read the date of her execution.

"Five days." With out warning the floor to Sari's cage dropped out from beneath her and she fell to the dirt floor below. "Sorry bout that lassie," The man added as a man dressed in black robes, strode up to her and hauled her to her feat. "You seemed a decent sort, for a murderer."

Sari's frantic scream continued to ring long after she had been dragged away. The man huddled up against the wall of his cage, softly muttering to himself. "Pity, pity, such a pity…" His voice gradually trailed off as he drifted towards sleep.

Sari was desperate. She was being dragged along a corridor lined with soldiers. All attempts to reason with her escort had failed and she was now desperately racking her brains for another means of escape. She took another step and something jabbed the small of her back. Wincing she groped under the back of her shirt for the source of her pain. Suddenly she froze as her hands closed around a small dagger caught in the back of her shirt. Quickly she snatched out and tucked it into the waist of her pants, all the while glancing around to make sure no one had noticed. No one had and as they continued down the corridor the seeds of a plan began to take root in her mind…


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

No one had and as they continued down the corridor the seeds of a plan began to take root in her mind…

Sari and her hooded escort steeped into a courtyard, one of many on the route to the gallows. Quickly looking around, she saw that no guards were present. Acting swiftly, Sari drew the dagger from its hiding spot in the waistband of her pants. With a cry, she swung around, throwing herself at her guard and pressing her dagger against his throat. The man froze and stiffened, a muffled voice emerging from the hood.

"Sari, you fool what are you doing?" Sari gasped stepping away from the man and lowering her dagger.

"Nikki?" She asked, confusion in her voice. The hooded person removed their hood, revealing the rough, smiling features of a young woman, a street rat like Sari. Sari swore, "What do you think you are doing?" Rage quickly took the place of bewilderment on her features.

"Saving your life." The young woman replied grabbing Sari's arm and explaining as they ran. "I heard you were to be executed so I snuck into the palace disguised as a maid. I flirted with the guards until they revealed which of them would be your executioner. I led him to believe I would bed him, then, when we were alone I killed him and took his uniform and mingled with the other guards until it was time to get you. They will have found his body by now. Good-bye and good luck." Sari looked around, surprised to note that they had emerged from a small east gate, near the docks.

"Thanks Nikki." Sari turned and ran off towards the docks without another moments thought as Nikki disappeared in the opposite direction.

Lord Karazan smiled as the young woman before him finished her report. His teeth, blackened by drugs, gave him the appearance of a long dead corpse, aided by his blood-shot eyes and gray, waxy skin.

"My spies report that she has snuck aboard a ship bound for Tortall."

"What if she does not make it?" The man grinned wolfishly.

"Then we move on to Plan B." Nikki gazed up nervously at her master as he threw back his head and roared with laughter.

Sariana Yallimi's last view of her home country was through a hole in the cracked hull of a vessel bound for Steadfast, Tortall.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Sariana Yallimi's last view of her home country was through a hole in the cracked hull of a vessel bound for Steadfast, Tortall.

Sari awoke to the rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning. The small ship was being tossed about like a leaf in a gale. Water was poring through cracks in the hull. From the deck above came the sounds of battle and the screams of the dying. Confused and not entirely lucid, the began to stand when, with a crash, the body of a young sailor came crashing through the deck, his face distorted with pain and marred by innumerable wounds. As water began to pour through the gaping hole, Sari calmly, and without showing any emotion, stepped over the corps, cautiously making her way up the stairs. On the deck, a battle waged. Arrows came streaking out of the darkness towards the ship, their source an unknown factor in the inky black night. Unable to defend it's self against its invisible attackers; the ship was slowly beginning to sink into the welcoming, unforgiving waters of the river. Suddenly, an arrow cut past Sari, grazing her cheek and throwing her off balance. The ship heaved, and Sari found herself being thrown backward into the crushing embrace of the furious river.

Kel had come on the hunting party as a way to get away from the closeness of the fort, but, much to her surprise, she found herself feeling carefree for the first time in days. The men did not treat her as anything but another able body and among their rough, joking numbers she found herself able to relax. They were following the tracks of two deer, meandering along the edge of the Drell River. From around a curve in the river came a shout. One of the men had found something! As she rounded the curve, Kel saw that they were slinging the body of a girl over the back of one of the horses. One of the men told her that he had found the girl, half-drowned, washed up on the shore. Calling to the rest of the group, they abandoned the hunt and headed back up the river to Fort Steadfast.

Sari awoke. The first thing she was aware of was pain, followed quickly by the realization that she was lying in a bed in a long, low building filled with beds identical to the one she occupied. Her third was that their was a man standing at the foot of her bed gazing down at her with a slight smile gracing his lips. Sari leaped up, then nearly passed out with pain. Steadying her self, she groped for her stolen weapons, only to find, to her horror, that they were gone. At the sound of the man speaking she looked up.

"Don't bother looking for your daggers. I took them. Your lucky they didn't cut you to shreds when you took your little dip in the river." The man grinned at her as Sari looked around for a way out. As far as she could see, all the entrances were blocked. Appraising the man in front of her, she decided not to attack him. He looked harmless enough but there was something about his eyes and the way he stood that told her that he had seen his share of blood. " Welcome to New Hope." He smiled then added, "My name is Neal." He left, closing, and locking the only door behind him. Sari fell back onto her bed cursing and wincing as pain shot through her body.

Neal met Kel outside of the Infirmary. "She'll live." He told her.

"Did she tell you anything? Where she came from? What her name is" How she came to be here."

"Its too early. Besides, she looked more likely to attack me than to tell me about herself."

"She's definitely from the Yaminis, but how did she end up half-dead in the Drell?" Neal shrugged as Kel walked away, still muttering to herself.

A/N: R&R please! And thanks too all who have reviewed! I am trying to make the chapters a bit longer.


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